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Hank Venture
Henry Alan "Hank" Venture is one of the two titular Venture Brothers and a main character on the Adult Swim program of the same name, parodying boy detectives and adventurers. He is voiced by Christopher McCulloch. __TOC__ Personality and relationships Hank Venture is the more outgoing, adventurous, and gullible of the two boys. He exhibits a typically 1950s/1960s outlook on life, frequently using such mild interjections as 'golly!' His appearance is similar to that of Fred Jones from Scooby-Doo, (a similarity mentioned by Triana Orpheus and her friend, Kim). The resemblance mainly stems from his ever-present (except when he wears his Aquaman pajamas or his Batman costume) white shirt and neckerchief wardrobe and blonde hair, although his hair is much shorter than Fred's. (Hank has remarked that he does not particularly like neckerchiefs any longer, but continues to wear them to please his father.) Unlike Dean, he tends to be less naïve and more decisive, even if his actions are often mentally unsound and fail to help the current situation. He is prone to flights of fancy; Brock Samson states at one point "it's like he (Hank) channels dead crazy people," to which Dean agrees. He is older than Dean by four minutes. Hank tends to be more keen on adventuring than anyone else in the family, frequently asking to accompany Brock on his various trips ("Home Insecurity") or just hanging out with him ("Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!"). While Brock considers Hank an apt pupil, Hank's exuberance and joy at being included in adventurous undertakings frequently leads to missteps occurring-from slight, to fatal. His best friend is certainly his brother Dean, and the two attempt to live up to the legacy of Team Venture, albeit poorly. Like any other pair of brothers, Hank and Dean argue at times; Hank is the physically stronger of the two and usually overpowers Dean when rough-housing (His father, Dr. Venture, also once mentioned that Hank "get(s) that kind of retard strength when he gets all worked up"). His relationship with his father can border on the nonexistent at times, largely due to Dr. Venture's focus more on Dean and his work/money troubles. Hank tends to bond well and easily with others: Brock Samson, The Monarch, Sergeant Hatred (after Hatred swore off child molesting), Dermott Fictel, Doctor Girlfriend (who rightly considered Hank capable of driving a getaway car; Dean she considered a "candy ass"), Henchman 21 (who has informed Hank that based on the number of times 21 has seen Hank die, Hank must be an immortal ... "Like Highlander"), and assassin Jean-Claude Le Tueur (who Hank bonded with while discussing comic books; their plans to go to the San Diego Comic-Con the next year fell through, however, as Brock sliced Le Teur in half) are all characters that Hank has befriended. Hank has a close relationship with family bodyguard Brock Samson, who treats him with genuine affection and concern. While Dean is apparently being groomed by Dr. Venture to follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps as a super-scientist, Brock has passed on some of his own unique expertise to Hank. He once talked him through the process of defeating several "ghost" pirates via his wrist communicator("Ghosts of the Sargasso"), and tends to think of Hank as his back-up in most violent situations the Ventures get into ("Love-Bheits", "The Buddy System"). The Hank who appeared in the first season was circumcised, while Dean was not; Hank used this as an insult (calling it a "creepy dog dork"). However, the Hank that was activated in "Powerless in the Face of Death" was uncircumcised until the third season episode "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman" when he passed through an Amazonian warrior tribe's rite of manhood. In the new Season 4 trailer, Hank is shown to have a drastically altered appearance, having grown his hair out and now wears Brock's old jacket on top of a black shirt and blue jeans; the series creators have stated that this change is due to Hank beginning to age normally, after being revived multiple times in clone bodies of similar appearance and age (see below).Venture Bros. Comic-Con Panel '09 History and activities on the show Details of Hank's childhood have been very sparse; in "Careers in Science," Dr. Venture bemoans the "moment of passion" that led to the boys' birth. He, like Dean, regrets knowing nothing of their birth mother and sometimes entertains fantasies about finding her ("Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!" "Hate Floats"). The episode "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills" gave a likely (but not officially confirmed) suspect of now insane (possible) ex-OSI agent Myra Brandish as their mother (to which Hank bears some resemblance). Thanks to their father's scientific knowledge, the Hank and Dean that appear in The Venture Bros. have been cloned over 14 times. Venture explains that the boys seem to be rather "death-prone," and as a precaution he keeps a few clones ready at all times for activation. Although Dr. Venture mentions in "Powerless in the Face of Death" that both Hank and Dean's clones were first developed from "toenail clippings," obviously his dead sons' clippings. A flashback montage showing the boys' deaths seems to indicate that Hank may have met an unfortunate end slightly more frequently than Dean. Hank has a fascination with Batman and is shown wearing the same Batman costume as a running gag. While Hank rarely has an episode dedicated solely to himself, he does play at least a prominent part in nearly all episodes. He helped Brock to take down a ship of faux-ghost pirates, led an attack on the "Phantom Spaceman" and attempted to free Brock from Dr. Venture's hypnotic "joy can." He can be counted on for enthusiasm, if not actual intelligence or competence. Unlike Dean, however, Hank noticed that his supposed age did not match the date on his ID card. One of his larger roles involved his accidental exposure to the "Goliath Serum." This compound, invented by Richard Impossible for use as a weapon, was intended to cause a chain reaction in a living organism that culminates in a massive, devastating explosion proportional to the mass of subject, for example, an ant could destroy a tank, meaning Hank theoretically could have exploded with the force of atom bomb at least. Dr. Venture worked with Pete White, Master Billy Quizboy, and Impossible's wife Sally to produce an antidote. Shortly after being injected with this experimental cure, Hank's symptoms vanished; Dr. Impossible, however, curtly announced that the scientists had only succeeded in inventing ranch dressing. (The serum was apparently only effective on ants, the only creatures on which it had ever been tested.) However, Hank did manifest symptoms of the serum, so it's possible that the supposed "ranch dressing" was really a cure and Dr. Impossible was just jealous of Dr. Venture's success. Richard's wife, Sally Impossible, even claims that this is the reason. He developed an intense crush on Molotov Cocktease when she guarded the Venture family for several days while Brock was hunting his former mentor and eagerly threw himself into the training the Russian mercenary forced the Ventures to do. His infatuation led him to take down his posters of Mary Lou Retton and Danica Patrick, which worried Dean about the training's effect over his brother. Coming across her then-discarded stiletto heel boots, he nuzzled and rubbed against them, only to be lightly touched in the neck by the blade hidden in the heel, which was coated with a highly effective psychotropic hallucinogen. This caused him to hallucinate that Molotov wanted him to kill his father so they could be together (Dr. Venture had been making his usual pathetic advances to Molotov in the meantime). He picked up a machete and attempted to hack down his father in his lab; but the weapon was made merely of papier-mâché and he was summarily grounded for his attack. Again he has played minor but important roles in recent episodes, such as attempting to personally crash the wedding between Baron Ünderbheit and his brother while trapped in Ünderland; he also tried to help the spirit of Abraham Lincoln save the current president from being assassinated — although when his brother was possessed by Lincoln, he was nearly kissed, an event that horrified him but prompted Lincoln (who indicated that he had access to Dean's memories) to express knowledge that the boys had experimented with each other previously. There have been, on a few occasions, suggestions from other characters that Hank may be gay (from Triana in "The Buddy System" and the Alchemist "Fallen Arches"), though there is little evidence to support this thus far. On a minor note, Hank has pointed out that he has a scar from a giant centipede. In the trailer for the fourth season, Hank is shown with his hair grown out and has begun to emulate his absent hero, Brock, wearing his jacket and a greater willingness to learn combat. http://eronline.blogspot.com/2009/08/venture-bros-season-4-trailer.html Mother *Dr. Venture has vaguely referred to the boys having an actual mother on a few occasions: **In "Careers in Science", Dr. Venture says that he "started" the boys in a moment of passion.Episode "Careers in Science" **In "Mid-Life Chrysalis", the boys directly asked Dr. Venture about their mother. He realizes that he's never really told them about their mother, and begins to tell them about her, but is cut off before he could go into more detail.Episode "Mid-Life Chrysalis" **Also, in "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!", the image of Dr. Venture makes a reference to their mother while Hank is in the fantasy world of Dr. Venture's "joy can", with Hank hearing her voice off screen. However, this was the idealized fantasy world of Hank's in which he had a mother (with Dean's absence implied), and likely had no basis in real events at all.Episode "Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!" **In "Powerless in the Face of Death", Dr. Venture implies that the boys' mother was ugly. When he mentions losing his virginity at 24, Dr. Orpheus says "That is awful!" (Referring to his continued cloning of the boys). Dr. Venture scoffs, and replies "You didn't even see her, it was horrific."Episode "Powerless in the Face of Death" While there is no official confirmation at this time, the most likely suspect offered up as being Hank and Dean's mother has been Myra Brandish: season 3 confirmed that she was Thaddeus Venture's bodyguard at approximately the time he was 24, at about the right time frame for the boys to be conceived, and Thaddeus has confirmed he did have sex with her. *Hammer and Publick have confirmed that the boys do, in fact, have a biological mother.Video of Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick at Dragon*Con '08 via Adult Swim References Category:The Venture Bros. characters Category:Fictional clones Category:Fictional twins es:Hank Venture